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In 1599, Capuchin monks made a shocking discovery while exhuming bodies from the catacombs of their monastery. They found that many of the bodies had been naturally mummified.

Following this discovery, the monks decided to mummify their own dead, and the Palermo townspeople soon joined in. The last mummy was laid to rest here in 1920. The catacombs have become one of the largest, and most eerie, collections of mummified bodies in the world.